Summer breads 2016

This spring, things were going nicely. Fatherhood had settled into me, and I was regularly baking breads and cinnamon rolls, with some breads even getting posted on this blog. In June, I fell off my bike, breaking three bones (right elbow, hand, pinky finger) and whacking my head hard enough on the pavement to give me a concussion and require several stitches. Bread baking and starter maintenance abruptly slowed to a minimum. I even walked a friend through the process of making a bread in my kitchen one weekend so we could have some for a BBQ. 

When the cast came off my hand, the first thing I did was feed my starters. Stirring hurt like hell, so I added more water to my starters to make it easier. The starters were only getting fed every other day or even worse and barely survived the ordeal. The left hand was fine, so I was able to start making breads after a couple of weeks when the concussion symptoms eased off. 

So here are some photos of the few breads I put together over the summer. Everything is healing up very nicely, so no worries there. It has made me appreciate the value of two good, working hands. There's no electric mixer in my kitchen, and making breads has helped me get some strength back. I've learned that I'm a complete wimp and sissy. 

Here's a white bread. These are for me!

This one is called the Trump

And a couple of olive breads with either whole wheat or spelt added to the bread flour. 

It was great to be able to read things on TFL when I couldn't type or bake that much. The time off only increased my enthusiasm.